Although the Slow Movement—a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace—began in the late 1980s, it has recently undergone a surge in popularity. Today there are numerous offshoots, including slow money, slow parenting, and slow journalism. While I’m not quite ready to give up fast food or fast media, I’m eager to align myself with what Robert Joustra calls “slow justice”: I’m trained to do slow justice. I do what Mike Gerson calls the banality of goodness. Slow, methodical, plodding,...

Last night, Acton Institute President Rev. Robert A. Sirico joined host Lawrence Kudlow andauthor Naomi Schaefer Riley on The Kudlow Report to discuss the selection of Pope Francis as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, the effect he is having on the Catholic Church worldwide, and his views on economics and free markets. We’ve embedded the video of the interview from CNBC below. ...

This short list of books is meant to avoid the obvious works one might find in a Christmas list. So I’ve omitted great works like A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Charlie Brown Christmas (which I’ve included) is probably the only that would make the popular lists we often see because it’s so well known in our culture because of the television series that preceded the book. The works below all have a strong Christmas connection, even the military history...

Acton Institute Director of Research Samuel Gregg sat down with Daniel McInerny, the Editor of the English edition of Aleteia, to discuss his latest book,Tea Party Catholic.McInerny and Gregg explore what Catholics should believe regarding limited government, free markets and capitalism. Check out Sam’s book here, and view the interview below. ...

Business, we are told, is supposed to have a conscience to survive. For instance, Chad Brooks at Fox Business says that businesses have to be “socially conscience” in order to attract customers: Young consumers consider social responsibility most when shelling out big bucks for products such as puters, consumer electronics and jewelry, the study found. Specifically, more than 40 percent of consumers under 30 consider social issues when buying a big-ticket pared to just 34 percent who factor in those...

Acton Institute President Rev. Robert A. Sirico stopped by the studios of today and spoke with host Joe Deaux about how Pope Francis differs from his predecessors in his approach to economic issues. The pope is emphasizing “human solidarity,” Sirico said. “He quoted Benedict by saying that globalization has brought us to be close, to be neighbors, but not to be brothers.” Achieving a sense of fraternity is the goal. We’ve embedded the video for you below. ...

Dan Clements, an American student studying at the University of Leuven, and I help greet conference attendees Last week, an exciting new organization called the Transatlantic Christian Council(TCC) hosted its inaugural conference. The theme of the conference was “Sustaining Freedom”, which aligns well with the Council’s mission “todevelop a transatlantic public policy network of European and North American Christians and conservatives in order to promote the civic good, as understood within the Judeo-Christian tradition on which our societies are largely...

In my blog post yesterday about our statist healthcare system and the need for more economic freedom, I referenced a NYT piece by Scott Gottleib and Zeke Emmanuel and argued that if their rosy view of America’s healthcare future has any chance ing true, we’ll need far more economic freedom in the system than currently exists. Now Greg Scandlen has a sobering essay at the Federalist challenging the NYT piece, taking particular issue with their pointing to Massachusetts as a...

On Thursday at 9PM EST, Victor Claar will be a guest on “Stossel” on Fox Business. Claar and John Stossel will discuss fair trade coffee. Claar frequently lectures on the fair trade movement at Acton University and wrote, Fair Trade? It’s Prospects as a Poverty Solution. If you can’t catch the premier of the show, it will air again multiple times, including on Fox News at 10PM EST on Sunday, December 15. The full episode will also be available online...

The Fraser Institute has released the ninth edition of their annual report on economic freedom in North America. The report considers how such factors as size of government, takings and discriminatory taxation, and labor market freedom affect people’s freedom to choose how to produce, sell, and use their own resources, while respecting others’ rights to do the same. Read the report and see where your state ranks. ...